Calls via the LTE mobile network, also known as 4G, are encrypted and should therefore be tap-proof. However, researchers have shown that this is not always the case. They were able to decrypt the contents of telephone calls if they were in the same radio cell as their target, whose mobile phone they then called…

They look deceptively real, but they are made by computers: so-called deep-fake images are generated by machine learning algorithms, and humans are pretty much unable to distinguish them from real photos. Researchers have developed a new method for efficiently identifying deep-fake images. To this end, they analyse the objects in the frequency domain, an established…

Smartphone owners who unlock their devices with knock codes aren’t as safe as they think, according to new research. Knock codes work by letting people select patterns to tap on a phone’s locked screen. LG popularized the method in 2014, and now there are approximately 700,000 people using this method in the U.S. alone, along…

Researchers explored whether private data could still be recovered from images that had been ‘sanitized» by such deep-learning discriminators as privacy protecting GANs (PP-GANs). Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, who explored the machine-learning frameworks behind these tools, found that the answer is «not very.» In the paper «Subverting Privacy-Preserving GANs: Hiding Secrets…

Right now, there is a good chance your phone is tracking your location — even with GPS services turned off. That’s because, to receive service, our phones reveal personal identifiers to cell towers owned by major network operators. This has led to vast and largely unregulated data-harvesting industries based around selling users’ location data to…

Microphones are perhaps the most common electronic sensor in the world, with an estimated 320 million listening for our commands in the world’s smart speakers. The trouble is that they’re capable of hearing everything else, too. But now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has developed a system that can inform a smart home…

New research tested how open monitoring meditation altered brain activity in a way that suggests increased error recognition. The research, published in Brain Sciences, tested how open monitoring meditation — or, meditation that focuses awareness on feelings, thoughts or sensations as they unfold in one’s mind and body — altered brain activity in a way…

A healthy Nordic diet can prevent a range of diseases. Until now, the health benefits attributed to a Nordic diet by researchers primarily focused on weight loss. But in a new study, researchers found clear evidence that a Nordic diet can lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels even without weight loss. In particular, they point…

Even light-to-moderate drinking is associated with harm to the brain, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from more than 36,000 adults that found a link between drinking and reduced brain volume that begins at an average consumption level of less than one alcohol unit a day — the equivalent of about half a…

For the first time, neuroscientists have identified a population of neurons in the human brain that light up when we hear singing, but not other types of music. These neurons, found in the auditory cortex, appear to respond to the specific combination of voice and music, but not to either regular speech or instrumental music.…